H e b r e w T r e e

Living in a world that is majority run by the media and the true meaning of things like beauty and worth is exampled by how much money or fame or headlines your name is in or how tan you are or the brand of make-up you wear and the purses you carry, it is hard to place yourself anywhere else outside that without being told you have failed.
Living in a world where the first person you are told to serve is yourself and greed are more priority focuses than emptying yourself of yourself and giving more than you're taking, it is no wonder we are a world that lacks love.
Living in this world claiming you are a follower of Jesus even has a bad connotation. For many when you hear someone say they are a "Christian" the first word you deem synonym is "hypocrite". To be a "Christian" nowadays is just as bad as saying you are of this world.
"Christians" are fake and their only attempt at befriending a sinner is to get them to go to church. They are seen as the stereotype little old ladies club after the service who is talking all sorts of nasty about the 20-something who wore knee-high boots.

HebrewsTree is an attempt to help change this.
To help teach love because of existence and no other reason.
To help teach Jesus.

HebrewsTree defined is merely this:

LOVE.
LOVE is the beginning of all things. To LOVE Him, is to live life. To live life for Him, is to LOVE life.
To LOVE those who are hard to LOVE.
To LOVE what He gives us.
To LOVE what He takes away.
Without LOVE, there is no life. Without God, there is no LOVE.

"Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1



Have faith that God's LOVE will overcome anything of this world.
LOVE others because they exist and for every one of their imperfections.
Be reminded and remind others that our God is a God who gives 2nd and 3rd and 4th chances.

Be a tree of life, who's branches are full of hearts that pour out selfless love, who's rooted by the faith in Jesus Christ because then will people begin to know HIM. People will know HIM by your LOVE.

[An excerpt from Rob Bells newest book "Sex God"...]

Love Is...

Love is handing your heart to someone and taking the risk that they will hand it back because they don't want it. That's why it's such a crushing ache on the inside. We gave away a part of ourselves and it wasn't wanted.

Love is a giving away of power. When we love, we give the other person the power in the relationship. They can do what they choose. They can do what they like with our love. They can reject it, they can accept it, they can step toward us in gratitude and appreciation.

Love is a giving away. When we love, we put ourselves out there, we expose ourselves, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

Love is giving up control. It's surrendering the desire to control the other person.
The two - love and controlling power over the other person - are mutually exclusive. If we are serious about loving someone, we have to surrender all of the desires within us to manipulate the relationship.

So if you were God - which I realize is an odd way to begin a sentence - but if you were God, the all-powerful creator of the universe, and you wanted to move toward people, you wanted to express your love for the world in a new way, how would you do it?

If you showed up in your power and control and might, you would scare people off. This is what happens at the giving of the Ten Commandments. The first two commandments are in the first person: "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image ... for I, the LORD ..." But starting with the third commandment, someone else is talking: "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD..." The rabbis believed that this is because God was speaking directly to the people in the first two commands, but they couldn't handle it. As it says in the text, "They trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, 'Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.' " So, the rabbis reasoned, the switch in person is because Moses gave them the remaining eight commandments.

Just God speaking is too much to bear.

If you're God and you want to express ultimate love to your creation, if you want to move toward them in a definitive way, you have a problem, because just showing up overwhelms people. You wouldn't come as you are. You wouldn't come in strength. You wouldn't come in your pure, raw essence. You'd scare everybody away. The last thing people would perceive is love.

So how would you express your love in an ultimate way? How do you connect with people in a manner that wouldn't scare them off but would compel them to want to come closer, to draw nearer? You would need to strip yourself of all the trappings that come with ultimate power and authority.

That's how love works.

It doesn't matter if a man has a million dollars and wants to woo a woman, if she loves him for his money, it isn't real love. If you were an almighty being who made the universe and everything in it, you would need to meet people on their level, in their world, on their soil ... like them.

This is the story of the Bible.
This is the story of Jesus.

[I couldn't have said it better.]

“Would you die for your faith?”

The question is posed as 15 or so Concordia students dressed as guards rush in yelling and have us pinned against a wall facing the dull pale paint that covers it. My body shakes and my heart is pounding as tears fill my eyes. The room is pitch black with only the fast motion of flashlights being shined in our eyes. The lights go out. It’s completely dark. The sound of heavy and anxious breathing fills the room.

“Would you die for your faith?”

The question rings in my ears and my heart lies heavy in my chest. The past 15 minutes it took to get to this room seems like hours ago. With the anxiety of turning every corner my heartbeat raced and with ever encounter of guards and every encounter of one more person being taken and killed, my breaths get shorter.

This feels so real.

Our leader risks his own life for us. He distracts the guards; beaten for having a bible in his backpack all so that we could sneak into the room where in community we could have a bible study with fellow Christians who are dealing with the same secret.

“Are any of you Christians?”

Silence.

A woman, who said nothing at all, is taken first. She didn’t even admit to it. Killed. Just because of suspicion.

They surround us, and our leader tells us to run. A man, in the wrong place, is taken second. Killed. Because that’s who they caught.

“Would you die for your faith?”

It’s so easy here. I can stand and praise my God anytime I wish. I can raise my hands in the middle of a crowd and yell at the top of my lungs, “PRAISE THE LORD!” I can have 5 bibles laying across my desk with my door wide open and nothing happen to me.

It’s so easy here.

And I take it for granted.

There are people in other countries suffering from persecution, real persecution, that are dying for their faith, literally, and all they want to do is have the liberty to read their bible. Hold their bible in their hand. I haven’t opened my bible in over 3 weeks.

Would I go through the measures to read my bible every week the way I did tonight? Would I deny Jesus if a real gun was to my head? Would I die for my faith? Would I find a way to be joyful in persecution? How would Mormons react to a mock persecution?

This was only a fraction of what it is like for other brothers and sisters across the world. A huge question has been asked tonight and has made me question what I am truly living for and how much a priority Jesus is in my life. I am so excited about loving people. I am so excited for the great liberty I have to tell people about my God who is mighty to save. I encourage you to take some time out. Right now. And thank God for all He is. I stand speechless. I stand ashamed. I stand selfish. I stand loved. By a God who forgives me. I needed this tonight. I needed God to put in perspective all that I have in Him and all that needs to be stripped away from me. I honestly don’t know the answer to the question. But I do know that my relationship is going to start being intentional. Intentional on growing, on outreaching, on loving, on living for a God; living for a Savior who is worth dying for.

11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12

WOULD YOU DIE FOR YOUR FAITH?